Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc and Baidu Inc, China’s largest search engine operator,

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc and Baidu Inc, China’s largest search engine operator, have agreed to team up to distribute mobile content to Chinese users, the Nikkei business daily said.

The two companies plan to form a joint venture(JV) next month and the Japanese mobile carrier is expected to invest about 2 billion yen ($24.7 million), the daily reported.

Baidu will take an 80 percent stake in the JV, while DoCoMo will own the remainder, the paper said.

The two firms plan to develop and operate a site with search functions and will call on Japanese companies to supply content such as games, animation and comics for subscribers of Chinese mobile phone carriers, including China Mobile Ltd , Nikkei said.

DoCoMo has plans to form a content distribution system in Vietnam and market its services to telecom firms in other parts of Asia as well. It is also considering investment in local content providers, Nikkei reported. ($1 = 80.930 Japanese Yen)

via reuters